`He'll make for the Big C to get cash an' fresh horses,' he told himself.
He found the trail, a mere wagon-way, which after crossing a brush-dotted mile or so of plain, zigzagged through a procession of shallow wooded ravines and low ridges. It was from one of the latter that he got a glimpse of the killer. He had not waited to take a second horse, and the girl--who appeared to be unconscious--was slung across the saddlebow. Only for a moment
they were visible before entering a timbered tract, but the puncher's knowledge of horseflesh told him something. `He's got a good start, Nig, but that hoss is weakenin'.' He stroked the curving silken neck, and the black quickened its pace, eager to show this master who never ill-treated, what it could do. When next they sighted the fugitive he was appreciably nearer, and commencing a long, gradual incline. Sudden smiled mirthlessly.
`We've got him, of fella,' he said. `That rise'll bust his bronc wide open.'
He was right. The double burden and killing speed had already taken toll, and only incessant spurring kept the exhausted beast going. The climb proved the last straw, and the black began to gain rapidly. Cullin glanced back, and his right arm rose and fell furiously as the brute above flogged the nobler brute beneath. Somehow the gallant animal, dying on its feet, reached the crest and was lost to sight. Sudden was a scant fifty yards behind.
This distance covered, the ground dropped a little and then rose sharply, and here the trail swung off along a rather narrow shelf, with vertical cliff on one side, and a precipice on the other. An outflung natural buttress engaged Sudden's attention. His dismounted.
`He's got a gun,' he said. `Better "look afore we leap"--into sight.'
There was no trap. Cullin's horse had foundered, and lay on its side, breathing, but useless. The rancher was standing near the brink of the abyss, holding the drooping girl to his side. Sudden walked towards them stopping a dozen paces away.
`Well, Green, I still hold the high card,' he taunted. `Listen: I wanted this woman, so bad I was willin' to kill to get her. That dream's gone. I'm just usin' her. An' see, my gun's empty.' He pulled out the weapon, snapped the hammer six times, and thrust it behind his waist-belt, not without some difficulty.
`What's yore proposition?'
'I'll trade her life for mine. Give yore word to let me go unhurt an' I'll place her in safety.'
Sudden reflected a moment. He suspected a ruse, but could not divine it. In any case, if he got the girl away from that horrible chasm, he could take care of himself.
`It's a deal,' he said.
With every sense alert, he watched the rancher convoy his prisoner to the cliff wall, where she subsided listlessly. Then Cullin turned and walked away, his right arm swinging by his side. Sudden's eyes narrowed; the swing was lengthening, the hand going nearly waist-high, where the empty weapon hadbeen stowed. Tensed and ready, he stood, watching and waiting. Then it happened. Cullin had gone but a few steps when he whirled and fired, doubtless counting on a surprise. But Sudden had caught the beginning of the movement and his own gun was spouting flame at the same instant. He felt the scorch of the lead on his cheek, and saw the traitor stagger back under the impact of the heavy slug. His face drawn with pain and fraught with fear, the murderer tottered, fighting to regain his balance, only to lurch sideways, step on nothing, and with a strangling cry, vanish into the void.
The puncher pushed his hat back and wiped the clammy moisture from his brow. Not till then did he become aware of voices. Yorky, Pilch, and half a dozen others were beside him. `You ain't hurt, Jim?' the boy asked fearfully. `Gawd, you were quick.'
`Shore had to be,' Sudden replied. `It was a close call.' He explained the desperate trick Cullin had tried.
`Well, saves soilin' a rope,' Pilch said callously. `Though I wouldn't 'a' grudged it.'
The girl, ashen-faced and moving shakily, joined them, anxious for news of her husband. Only Yorky, who had started behind the others and caught them up, could tell her anything:
`He's hard hit, an' they're takin' him to Merker's, an' sendin' to Rideout for a doctor; Midway don't have none.'
With this she had to be content.
Chapter XXIII
Doctor Bolus - so he called himself--was middle-aged, and slight of frame, with a kindly face in which the eyes smiled. Why he chose to reside in this wild region nobody knew or cared; he was skilled, liked, and respected. The citizens gathered in Merker's bar to await his first report fell silent when they noted the gravity of his expression.
`It's a bad business, but he has a chance--a very slim one,' he announced. `Cannot be moved, so you can say farewell to your bedroom for some weeks, Merker.'
After a moment's thought, Merker said, `Not reflectin' nohow on yore ability, doc, I'm layin' you twenty dollars to one you don't save Nick.'
His eyes twinkling, Bolus accepted the wager, and the others on the same terms which followed. Merker, ousy making out a list, said:
`How far you prepared to go, doc? More o' the boys'll want in on this.'
The sky's the limit,' the little man smiled. `And I'm staying in Midway to win the money.'
`That's good to hear, sir,' the Judge said. `You'll be the town's guest, and anything your patient needs will be got.'
So it came to pass that Midway went about both business and pleasure on tiptoe, as it were. Every day men stepped softly into the saloon to read the latest bulletin, and for the first two weeks went away with disconsolate faces. To their queries the doctor had but one reply:
`I am doing all that is possible, and he has the most devoted nurse I ever met; she's just killing herself, and I'll have to speak to her.'
He did so, to be met with a stubborn refusal to leave the sickroom. He had his argument ready : `What's going to happen if your health breaks down?'
The possibility appalled her, and she capitulated on the condition that the doctor took her place, to which he readily agreed. Her first excursion brought astonishment. Every few yards men she had never seen stopped and shyly asked for news of the nester. This universal anxiety delighted her until an enquirer provided an apparent explanation.
`You just gotta pull him through, ma'am,' he said. `There's a lot o' dollars dependin' on it.'
She returned to the saloon seething with anger. Her crimson face told the doctor something had gone wrong.
The callous brutes !' she cried. `They are actually gambling on my husband's life.'
`You misjudge them,' Bolus returned quietly, and gave the facts. `So you see,' he concluded, `it is their way of offering me a fantastic fee to insure I will do my best. Do you know what happened this morning when I gave Merker a favourable report? Most of the wagers were doubled. You see, they want to lose.'
`I shall never understand the Westerner,' she said ruefully.
A day or so later Mary met Sudden, whom she had not seen since the tragedy, and asked a question : `Jim, how did you know we were married?'
`I didn't; it was just a hunch,' he replied.
`Was that the card they might not know of?'
`Yeah, but I wanted yu to play it,' he grinned.
She did not quite believe his ignorance--he had most discerning eyes, this Mister Green, and the twinkle in them wrought confusion in her cheeks. Perhaps this was why he changed the subject.`When am I goin' to see Nick?'
`Soon,' she promised.
But a week passed before the meeting came about, and Sudden received a shock. The nester, propped up by pillows, was a mere shadow of his former self. However, there was a smile on the gaunt, pale face.
`My, Jim, it's good to see you,' he said. `Me? I'm doin' fine. Tell me the news.'
`Ain't much. Quilt an' the rest of us are lookin' after the S P an' the Valley, Sturm an' his riders bein' plenty absent. Seale took a notion to travel. The Judge gave Camort ten years in the pen, but we had to sneak him out after dark to save his neck. Cullin? Oh, he fell over the cliff.'